synergy

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PMI North India Chapter

October –December 2012 e-Magazine

Synergy Collaborating Project Management for High Performance Business Insight

this issue

Issue 7

New elected

Chapter Board

Members.

More articles for PM Fraternity

Welcomes

By - Piyush Govil PMP®

Soft skills mends differences in personalities...

Dear Chapter Members & Practitioners,

We are now at the end of this very eventful and exciting year at North India

Chapter of PMI. This year saw creation of very comprehensive chapter bye-laws

by chapter board in confirming to changing times, PMI suggestions and need for

extending the board size to cater to ever growing list of activities and events in

coming years. The same got overwhelmingly approved by the chapter members

in a transparent online fashion and subsequent approval of the same was also

received from PMI Asia Pacific Office.

Subsequently, chapter board created an Election Nomination Committee com-

prising of following distinguished very senior professionals. We take this oppor-

tunity for thanking them for conducting and successful completion of transpar-

ent and fair elections as per Chapter Election Guidelines. It takes a fair amount

of effort & time out of personal commitments to accomplish the same and we acknowledge their efforts

for doing this for our chapter for third year in a row.

Manoj K. Gupta

President & CEO

PMI NI Chapter

Vote of Thanks Tejas Sura

Regional Mentor, PMI Region 11

Joint Managing Director Conart Engineers Limited

Ramam Atmakuri, VP Cognizant & Member –

PMI Chapter MAG. Winner of PMI Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence

Award

Brij Nandan Yadava Vice President

DLF

Home Developers

Ltd.

Message from Chapter President

Election Nomination Committee

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President & CEO

Manoj K Gupta

(Elected Unopposed)

VP – Technology Pritam Gautam

(Elected Unopposed)

Chief Finance & Compliance Officer Amit Chauhan

(Elected Unopposed)

VP - Corporate Relations

Shalini Lamba (Elected Unopposed)

VP - Volunteer Management Sachin Aggarwal

(Elected)

VP - Government Relations

Vanita Ahuja

(Elected)

Chapter Election Results

Secretary Position went uncontested and will be filled in by nominations by Chapter Board.

Elections were conducted as per Chapter’s Elections Guidelines which were fully compliant with PMI’s

guidelines and the results of the same were declared on Dec 21, 2012 as follows:

Dear Fellow Professionals,

Editorial Team reaches your desktop with 7th Edition of SYNERGY with more valuable articles from PM fraternity. Your

contribution to SYNERGY is setting benchmarks with each edition. With this end of year 2012 edition, we wish you a very

Happy and Prosperous New Year 2013 ahead.

Year 2012 has been eventful for SYNERGY; more and more members have shown their confidence by sharing their arti-

cles with the community. SYNERGY is growing relentlessly with every edition. Year end is always a busy period, since

everyone looks back to review their performance and extract lacunae to inscribe all in lessons learned document. With

the arrival of New Year, we all start planning to work on improvement areas from all lessons learned in the past year to

achieve professional heights in the year ahead.

I would like to urge to members of entire PM community to share the SYNERGY edition and motivate fellow professionals

to get involved with publication to share and learn from each other.

Happy Reading!

Regards

Piyush Govil PMP®

Vice –President – Communications


From the Editor’s Desk

Believe in your inner strength with this life truth like “Honey Bee” from whom we can steal as much as honey from its beehive but technique of making Honey will always be a strength of Honey Bee, no one can steal that

technique. Believe in yourself and inner strength.

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Table of Contents

1. Leading in leaderless organization ..................................................... 5

2. Lean thinking smarter way to demonstrate ........................................... 7

3. Project management lessons from the film world ................................... 10

4. Efficient human resource management ................................................ 12

5. Program management contribution to business process ............................ 14

6. Governance ................................................................................ 17

7. Self sustainability of project management metrics .................................. 18

8. Quantified approach to project risk assessment model ............................. 22

9. Project specific procurement ........................................................... 25

10. User Intimacy for IT managers .......................................................... 27

11. Interview Series ........................................................................... 28

12. Managing agile vs traditional? What’s difference..................................... 29

13. Regulatory and compliance .............................................................. 33

14. Data analysis and reporting .............................................................. 35

15. Fusion of Agile - Scrum to BDD .......................................................... 39 16. New Volunteer Program Lauch .......................................................... 42 17. Past Events ................................................................................. 43

Design and conceptualization: Piyush Govil

Articles review and support: , Kumar Saurabh, Nirmallya Kar, Prashant Malhotra, Pooja Gandhi, Hemant Seigell,

Nitin N Singh, Abhijit B Kumar, Manoj Gupta, Piyush Govil

Online Support: Pritam Gautam

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PMI India National Conference 2013

HOST - PMI North India Chapter

Get

Involved More

Volunteering

Opportunities

North India Chapter is also excited to announce that it has been awarded the rights for hosting the PMI National Conference 2013 in New Delhi

Join and collaborate

to create

Magic!

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Leading in a Leaderless Organization

By—Rahul Bhattacharyya PMP®

Micromanagement is a common malady afflicting

many organizations. I wish there was a mechanism

to quantify its destructive impact; especially, since,

in most organizations, micromanagement is com-

monly practiced mostly by ‘competent jerk’ manag-

ers. Such managers are capable but incessantly vy-

ing for control. Adding to the problem, the bosses of

these micromanaging ‘jerks’ often remain aloof be-

cause micromanagement tends to generate short-

term results. Only when employee morale dips

really low and financial damage occurs is the situa-

tion rectified.

A friend of mine had a micromanaging boss at his workplace. At times, my friend asked his boss why he couldn’t leave the team alone, since it was per-fectly capable of performing well without being hounded by dozens of follow-up emails.

His boss’s typical response was,

Evidently, my friend’s boss could not envision how

he would add value and remain relevant as a man-

ager if he delegated some control.

Jeffery Pfeffer, a celebrated professor of organiza-

tional behavior at Stanford University Graduate

School of Business, released a book in 2007 titled

“What Were They Thinking?” The book is a collec-

tion of 28 thought-provoking essays on various is-

sues encountered in leadership and people manage-

ment. In Chapter 6, Pfeffer talks about giving

autonomy to employees and presents an example of

a ‘leaderless’ or ‘multi-leader’ organization, where

leadership is shared and rotated among the mem-

bers. While reading this chapter, I revisited the ar-

gument that my friend’s boss had put forward and

thought of listing down a few ideas on how leaders

managing highly empowered, responsible, and self-

driven teams can continue to add value:

Leaders should engage with the team by ask-

ing the right questions. Leaders should build a

culture in which team members react posi-

tively to eye opening questions and accept the

questions as a way for the leader to add

value. Leaders should bring in a broader

“Look… I know, you have the desire for more

autonomy. But what would I do when I stop engag-

ing with you?” Is it a fair question? The answer is

emphatic “No”.

Key Points

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business perspective through these questions and

guide the members in the right direction. By asking

the right questions, leaders not only develop a

clear understanding of what is going on in the team

but also nurture the confidence and competencies

of their team members.

Leaders must invest time in enhancing their own knowledge and skills. In today’s knowledge-driven economy, respect and authority is earned only through knowledge and insight. By developing knowledge, leaders are likely to be better equipped to ask great questions. That would also empower them to mentor team members, and earn credibility and influence.

Leaders should look for future opportunities for their teams. This initiative could take many forms. Many employees leave organizations because of the lack of challenging work. Leaders can assume a ‘business development’ role and find interesting work for their team inside the organization. They can use the team’s efficiency as a bargaining tool. Another example would be to identify the ‘next level’ of maturity for the team and throw a chal-lenge; for example, developing new technical/functional skills or work processes.

Leaders should play a critical role in nurturing the ‘team-centric’ environment. They should ob-serve team dynamics and make sure that a healthy relationship exists among the team members. They should clarify goals and hold people accountable to those goals. They should also establish norms in the team and create a hunger for high performance.

Finally, leaders, for the sake of their own

growth, should try to groom future leaders and

move on to the next stage of their journeys. A

leader who can repeat the cycle of “building a

team—maturing it—growing a leader—building the

next team” in increasingly complex scenarios is

likely to achieve phenomenal career growth.

An empowered team does not

make a leader irrelevant. It only

throws unique challenges and

opportunities. Leaders can

evolve and achieve career suc-

cess by responding to those chal-

lenges in a positive and thoughtful manner.

Take away

Rahul Bhattacharyya is currently responsible for program management of Cloud based productivity tools at Adobe

Systems India (P) Ltd.

He has ten years of experience in Quality Engineering and Management of multiple flagship products such as Illustra-

tor, InDesign, Acrobat and Printer products.

Rahul is experienced in hiring, building and managing high performance teams coaching people and building teams. He is an MBA in General Management from Queen's School

of Business, Canada.

Rahul took his PMP certification in 2008 and is a Stanford Certified Project

Manager.

About

Auth

or

Rahul Bhattacharyya

Soft skill is an art to use blunt objects with ease.


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Lean Thinking– smarter way to demonstrate excellent teamwork

By— Saket Bansal PMP®

Project Planning is a crucial function of a Project Management team. One of the most important steps in the planning is Time Management. We stipulate a certain extent of duration for the execution and completion of a project successfully. What, if you get to achieve the target in time duration less than allotted. This means you would be able to save a lot of time and do some other works as well along side. Now, here comes my point, if you really want to save on some time then its better you gear up for Lean Thinking. Lean Thinking is of course not a new word for your folks. Almost everyone from almost any industry is vying for the same. Well who doesn’t want some

extra perks? For starters, it is important to understand that, Lean Thinking doesn’t imply that you have to ac-celerate your body engine to perform task with the ‘speed of light’. This simply means that you have to curb down all the distractions that your team is prey to.

Let us consider a day in the life of a “typical” pro-

ject team member. Ajay is a software engineer

working on a large system Integration project and

he is responsible for customization of billing system.

Let see Ajay’s typical activities on a typical day:

Activity Start End Value Waste

Tea 09:30 10:00 0 30 min

Emails , Jokes , News reading, for-

warding interesting topics, sending

good morning mail

10:00 11:00 0 1 hr

Tea Break 11:00 11:30 0 30 Min

Project Status Meeting 11:30 12:30 10 min 50 Min

Talking about status meeting, and

preparing some information

12:30 13:00 0 30 Min

Lunch 13:00 14:00 0 1 Hr

Discussing details of Customization

with BA

14:00 15:00 20 Min 40 Min

BA got 3 calls in between and Ajay was

just waiting , and Ajay himself got 2 calls

Developing on the code based on

discussion with BA

15:00 16:00 1 hr 0

Tea Break 16:00 16:30 0 30 min

Call with Customer 16:30 17:30 20 min 40 min, he got some clarification on his

query, but the customer was spending

more time in explaining how bad the last

release was.

Making MOM of call and recoding

discussion held with BA

17:30 18:00 0 30 Min

Taking about new movie and week-

end plans

18:00 18:30 0 30

1 Hr 40 Min 7 hr 20 min

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Now, this is a general survey, your statistics may vary from mine. But, the bottom line is that the ex-ecutives are wasting most of their crucial time of their working day in dilly-dallying instead of working real. If you will really look into the situation and make your analysis, then it would be an eye opener that the revenue generated by the company is negli-gible in comparison to the investment made for the management of such employees in the firm. It is very essential to define and prioritize the value of time to all the team members before you stum-ble down the ladder of competition in such a cut-throat era of business. Slash down the unneces-sary meetings called to discuss petty matters of the firm. Rather call a group discussion and short meetings to decide on constructive and innovative means to achieve the business ends and cut down on the wastage in any form.

There should be quick actions over the matters of

importance and nobody should dawdle in the time

stipulated for the project completion. Make your

team understand what is constructive and what is

destructive for a successful team. For, this I have

prepared a short checklist of five Lean Principles of

Lean Thinking. These principles have been devised

to understand and learn what waste is. These help

you in comprehending the active operational values

and successful deliverance of the project.

Value of a project- It is essential for a project

manager to underline the value of each project

to the team members so that they give priority

to what is to be done on first hand.

Values

Value stream- Identify the value stream for

each project

Pull- Customers should be able to pull or gain value from the project team Perfection- Continuous efforts must be in-vested to derive perfection at the end

This leads us to the exact definition of Value -

Project activities can be categorized into three types based upon the “value” criterion

Pure value-added tasks Waste Type I-Non-value added but is somehow important for the job to be done Waste Type II- Purely non value-added - A low-hanging fruits to be eliminated

Flow

Let value stream have an uninterrupted flow

An activity on a project is value-added if

it transforms the deliverables of the project in

such a way that the customer recognizes the

transformation and is willing to pay for it.

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Activity Value Waste : Type 1 Waste : Type 2

Conducting a weekly team coordination meeting

Hunting for needed information

Presenting project status to senior management

Getting multiple approval on project document

Waiting for test labs and server infrastructure

Now that we understand that value is what actually a customer pays, we have to be uptight to find out what

is best for deriving value oriented results. Once the team members have understood what is ‘value system’

and what actually customer pays them for, it would be lot easier for you to make them learn how to stop

wasting time and energy which could have been used otherwise efficiently.

This is the magic of Lean Thinking you tend to eliminate what all is waste of and not any value to the cus-

tomer’s project.

It’s time you pay all attention and be a judge for yourself. Mark the category which you feel matches your experience accurately

Waste thus eliminated will also

be helpful in clearing the obsta-

cles intruding the work per-

formance. You would be able to

fend the major tasks from all

the difficulties.

What we can derive from the

entire discussion is that Lean

Thinking can be defined best as

- keeping the value flow intact

and eliminating waste en route.

You should maintain a strict vigil

inspired by lean thinking i.e. dis-

cipline in project team and waste

elimination from time to time.

To be precise, once you team recognizes what is

value oriented they will definitely invest their energy

in what pays them and not what wastes them. Draw

a flow chart, line out what is important and paid.

Outline what could be a ‘waste’ in terms of time,

money and energy too. This way it would be easier

for you to exercise lean management strategies at

you work place.

Take away

Saket is passionate about building strong learning com-

munities with great dedication and efforts. His exposure

to the Information technology combined with manage-

ment knowledge I have been organizing meet ups and

community events.

He is PMP , PMI-ACP , CSM , ITIL F

About

Auth

or

Saket Bansal

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Project Management lessons from the film world

By—Shankar Laxman

I was flipping through a plethora of Movie channels on a lazy Sunday afternoon, trying to settle down to something that will be light on my siesta craving mind. Finally, I settled down for a classic which I had watched many times over. I am not a movie freak but I have always been fascinated by many things that the reel world offers subtly in more ways than one, for us to learn. Given that there are many things to learn, I wanted to list down atleast a few things that I could comprehend. With this running over at the back of my head, I dozed off for a short while, only to wake up with a resolve to share my perspective of what we can learn in terms of pro-ject management from the fascinating world of filmdom.

Ask a film personality about what they are doing currently and their answer will inevitably refer to the term “project” sprinkled over all of their sen-tences. There is not even an iota of doubt that Film-dom projects have a lot of lessons for us offer and use it in the IT world and more specifically in the realm of project management. I have attempted to

list down few of the concepts that I could compre-hend from the world of show biz along with some witty quotes that is applicable for in the PM world.

Ever wondered while watching a flick that was a hit five years ago and exclaimed, “how could this pic be so successful??”. Many have experienced this! Most likely, it was a hit because, it catered to the masses at that time and the audience perspectives have changed ever since. If that same cinema had been released now, chances are that this would not have crossed the week mark. That’s the same that applies to our environment. Client’s perspective on

IT services is ever evolv-ing. PM techniques that worked in the past would be not so effective if it was used now. As a re-nowned filmmaker Edward Zwick puts it” I think one of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the oppor-tunity to remain a kind of perpetual student”. As a trait of a good student, Project management needs to learn new ways time and again to deliver the expected and also adapt to environmental changes to be effective. Alfred Hitchcock once quipped “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out”. What is seen on the

screen is an abridged ver-sion of reality with all the mundane events left out.

This can’t be more appropriate in our context where many of the client meetings gets diluted when the point of focus shifts from the core to is-sues that are way below in the priority list. Hence, if we can take the dull bits out of the context and focus on core issues, our client engagements will be more fruitful.

Ever Learning

Editing In the time of crises, I always use my body double!

That’s the beauty of managing project in film industry.

By –Piyush Govil

https://c2blogs.cognizant.com/blogs/337608/2012/09/19/hello-world/

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Hence, if we can take the dull bits out of the con-text and focus on core issues, our client engage-ments will be more fruitful.

Some of the issues that jeopardize the project stem from the resourcing front. What better way to learn from the industry which employs people from all walks of life. There is space for everyone to grow and each occupy a specific position in the film world. Also, there is no room for redundancy in reel world where the department in-charge needs to put exactly the right person on the right job. When the resource crunch does become a reality, the film world has shown that they can manage creatively to still do their business as usual. This can’t be ex-plained any further than by Charlie Chaplin’s who during troubled times quoted that “All I Need to Make a Comedy is a Park, a Policeman and a Pretty Girl.”

Every director has an innate touch which will be ex-hibited in their first few flicks. Creative ideas do come at a price. So, they don’t look only for new ideas all the time but use winning formula from dif-ferent works and mix them. Project managers get a deft touch in handling their assignments through experience. These can be documented and reused when similar challenges show up. Film industry thrives on this as Jean Renoir agrees” A Director Makes Only One Movie in His Life. Then He Breaks It Into Pieces and Makes It Again”

In many cases of project management, the phrase “Means to an end” gives way to “Means become the end”. Good Project management is an enabler for successful projects and cannot be taken as the End objective. This shift of focus spells doom in many projects where the focus is completely shifted side-lining the very purpose why project management is there in the first place. This is like putting the cart before the cattle. Film industry also has this parody where many believe that the objective of making a good movie is to make money. As Walt Disney would like to put it” We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies”. Clarity on the project management objectives will ensure that there are no “war room meetings” later.

To sum up, effective project management should provide a feeling of oneness in a client re-lation. As successful movies do best, they pull the audience to be a part of their story, so should

the project management be. Growing together with all the stakeholders should not merely be a lip ser-vice but should be a principle that drives work every day. This was aptly phrased by Roman Polanski as” Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater”

Take away

Resource Crunch

Reusability

Purpose

Shankar has more than eight years of experience in IT

and more than six years of experience in SAP.

Have exposure to clients from varied industries ranging

from Media, Manufacturing and Banking.

During the course of all these years, he has gained expo-sure in the execution and management of Support, test-

ing and Roll out projects.

He is currently associated with Cognizant Technologies

About

Auth

or

Shankar Laxman

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By—Anju Agarwal PMP®

The termination of an employee is a situation that must be approached using facts and tact and must be handled with care this article talks about a more human approach to the corporate termination proc-ess.One must always remember that it’s the em-ployees who run the organization not the brand or image always. They are an indispensible asset who cannot be ignored even during recession or services discontinuation for whatever reasons as justified.

Terminating employment is an emotional and legal mine field for both the employer and the employee. There is the potential for unfair dismissal claims, decline in company’s public image, difficulty in re-cruiting new employees and low workplace morale amongst the remaining employees. More often, the terminated employee, regardless of their history with the organization are treated poorly as though they were most unproductive and most lowly em-ployees in the organization. Layoffs have a significant impact on the attitude and performance of both types of employees, those who are terminated by an organization and those who continue to work there. Exclaimed one em-ployee: "One day I was recognized by senior manag-ers for some task, the next day it was as if I didn't exist! ". Employees feel sad, depressed, ostracized and cheated. For those who remain, as well as for the community, there is often a significant erosion of loyalty, trust and support.

Layoffs should only be used as a last resort. Recent survey reports indicate that their benefits are greatly overrated: "Layoffs emerge as a risky, pain-ful, and inhumane form of management that only in the worst cases can resuscitate a dying organiza-tion."

One way in which an organization can show respect is to give employees as much choice as possible about when and how they will leave. Give them sev-eral weeks' advance notice that their jobs were re-dundant, as well as a choice about the timing of their departure. Although the loss of their jobs had a significant impact on employees, they appreciated having a choice about when and how they would leave. When valued and hard-working employees are un-ceremoniously escorted out the door, it undermines any self-esteem and pride they may still have. It also erodes the trust that remaining employees have in the organization.

Causes for dismissal should be shared openly, with straightforward focus on business ethics and mutual respect. Honesty goes a long way, and soon-to-be-ex-employees usually recognize and appreciate a candid discussion with no hidden agendas. Effective managers and human resources professionals recog-nize the benefits of compassion for those who no longer have a job. Severance packages should be crafted taking in to account: The employee’s long-term history with the company, The ability of em-ployer to pay severance and The corporate culture.

During a time of significant change resulting in the termination of employees, it is critical that every-one in the organization be kept fully informed about what is happening. It is extremely important to dis-pel the shroud of secrecy that often surrounds this type of situation. If the employee is performing poorly, you need to inform them of specific per-formance issues, in a timely manner.

Efficient Human Resource Management

Objective- Understanding Business Impact

Background: Employee Termination

Key Take- Away while handling situations

Give employee a choice

Deal with employees Honestly and Fairly

Good Communication

Use the magical word "WE" and not "I" or "YOU" during the project status calls and in

most of the project communications.

By—Sarika Mishra, IBM Noida

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You shouldn’t fire an employee for poor perform-ance if the employee has no idea that his or her performance is poor, inform and decide rule.

If you treat a departing employee with respect, it is far more likely they will offer the same in return, thereby avoiding major problems. Too often, how-ever, employee termination is handled badly and in haste. An employee represents a part of organiza-tion. He or She has given valuable time to the or-ganization, hence it is imperative that he or she is treated with due respect during the termination proceedings as well. Just because the organization doesn’t need the employee for whatsoever reasons, does not justify the manager or the HR department for ill-treating that employee. Always treat the em-ployee with dignity.

Make sure the manager knows exactly what duties the terminated employees handle and how they will be covered going forward. Don’t wait until the ven-dor payment in the office is late to realize that the downsized worker raised that vendor invoices every month.

In a downsize situation, it makes good business sense to maintain a positive relationship with the terminated employee. He or she may be a source of business in the future. If the employee is eligible for rehire if the company’s situation improves, make sure he or she knows that, and leaves for-warding information.

A person from human resource department should explain the severance package and other related things. This information should also be given in writ-ing, because they are usually too emotional to listen clearly to those particulars at that point.

Insensitive employee termination can create insecu-rity among other employees. They may start to wonder whether they are next on the chopping block, whether they will be treated the same way, and even, if this is the company they want to work.

Organizations should remember that a little profes-sionalism and planning at the start can make the most uncomfortable termination both easier and legally compliant later. In planning terminations, organizations should aim to provide the highest level of comfort and dignity to the individual who is terminated and support for their work group, while minimizing any risk to the organization.

Be Respectful

Transition the terminated employee’s duties

Don’t burn bridges

Explain the benefits

Secure the Loyalty of remaining staff

Closing Thoughts

REFERENCES:

Mary Ellen Szadkowski and Mary Buckley, GSIC– A more Humane approach to Employee Termination

http://www.improvemybusiness.com.au/manage-staff/staff-

development/employee-termination-adhering-to-the-legal-and-

ethical-standards

http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-

management/employee-performance-management/managing-employee-terminations.aspx

Anju has 13+ years of experience in IT. She has worked in various domains like Insurance Sector, Media Industry, Fleet Tracking and Medical Industry etc. Currently she is working as a Project Manager, responsible for designing and developing end to end IT solutions. She had worked in the technical role for more than 10 years and still can-not resist the temptation to fix errors in a team mem-ber’s code.

She is an MCA and a certified PMP. She is a passionate Project Manager, who would love to see a world where people acknowledge the work of PM's and would fully understand the significance of this role.

About

Auth

or

Anju Agarwal

http://www.improvemybusiness.com.au/manage-staff/staff-development/employee-termination-adhering-to-the-legal-and-ethical-standards



http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/employee-performance-management/managing-employee-terminations.aspx



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Program Management Contribution to Business Process Reengineering

By—Pawan Chibba

In today’s scenario where the business is capital intensive, highly volatile, customer centric and innovation driven its imperative that we look at the internal processes used to deliver the final product/ service to the end customer and offer a value with minimal cost and expected quality. Business Process Reengineering is the study of the internal processes and redesigning it to achieve various goals such as high productivity, reduction in redundant activities, minimal pro-duction cost, acceptable final product/ service quality and improved margins. Program Management by definition is the appli-cation of the knowledge, skills, tools and tech-niques to a Program (Group of projects which are aligned to the strategic goal of the organization) to meet business requirements and to

obtain benefits and controls not available by

managing projects individually. Program Man-agement is considered to be one of the most sought after capability that an organization seeks to utilize in order to realize its Strategic Goals. The core deliverables of any Program - to de-liver the product with minimum cost, within the acceptable quality limits and on time as per the agreed schedule - align with goals of Business Process Reengineering which also aims at improving the process to achieve high productivity thus minimize cost, improve process and product quality and reduce proc-essing time in order to deliver results faster.

A phased and cross functionally aligned process, Program Management can help identify the current proc-

esses being utilized for project execution which can be further leveraged to prepare a Process Map of the

existing setup.

Procedure for Mapping a Process:

How to utilize program management concept for Effective process mapping?

Identify the Deliverables required to transition from Idea to a tangible product/ service. #1

Identify the key stakeholders/ team members responsible for the activities. #2

Review the activities for each of these deliverables (as identified in # 1) and create a detailed activity chart (or we may call it WBS – Work Break down structure)

#3

Do a time study i.e. identify the time taken for each of the activity and log it in a time sheet/ template. (any excel sheet template should do)

#4

Create a RACI matrix as given in Fig on next page, to align and map individuals to activities and subsequently to functional deliverables.

#5

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Once the above steps have been completed, review the RACI matrix and the deliverable sheet with the team members. This will help identify gaps which might exist in the current process in terms of role clarity among the team members, redundant activities, non value added activities etc.

#6

The gaps that are identified in the # 6 along with the modified activity list becomes the baseline to work towards process reengineering.

#7

The first step towards process reengineering is to involve the stakeholders from the process mapping process and conduct a brain storming session to identify areas of improvement.

#8

Once identified, couple of similar sessions must be utilized to kill those gaps to finalize process improvement areas

#9

Based on the improvement areas identified the process can be improved and redefined by divid- ing the entire process into phases as is the case in Program Management Phase GATE process.

#10

These Process phases can further be broken down into various stages which can tied to specific inputs, processes and outcomes as depicted in the figure below

#11

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The reengineering activity should drive clarity on the at least following aspects to be effectively im-plemented:

Activities expected to be executed at each stage/ phase; The inputs which would be necessary to com-plete those activities ex: Documents, Output of previous stage, Technical data sheets etc; The details of the process which should utilize these inputs and The final outcome or deliverables of each stage.

This new process can be utilized to improve on the

performance metrics and also to establish an effective benchmark for Program Man-agers. This can help manag-ers identify key stakeholders for projects, acquire clarity on the process, improve OTD (on time delivery) due to re-moval of redundant steps/ activities to achieve the de-liverable, help minimize time to market, help reduce cost by effective utilization of resources by mapping the resources to activities and to activity duration which fur-ther helps in preparing re-source loading charts (which can further be utilized for resource allocation) and im-prove process and product

quality by ensuring control of the input and output/ deliverable at each stage.

Hence Program Management’s contribution to Business Process Reengineering can help bring cross functional awareness to teams specifically those who are part of knowledge intensive work like

New Product Development. This awareness along with the new framework of a mix of process ori-ented and functionally oriented organization can be leveraged to innovate, improve productivity and move ahead of competition by providing cost effec-tive solutions and offering value to customers.

Take away

Pawan Chhibba is currently associated with Ingersoll Rand as Program Manager. He has a diversified industry experience of more than 9 years in the field of Telecom Infrastructure projects

and New Product Development.

He is a B.E (Electronics) and MBA (Marketing & Finance) from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi. He is certified from IIT Kharagpur on Telecommunication networks and is also

has an E-Commerce certification from IBM.

He is a Certified Internal Auditor from Confederation of Indian Industry for ISO9001:2008, ISO14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007. He has been in-strumental in successfully delivering various telecom network deployment projects and in his previous assignment as Project Manager he successfully lead a team which

deployed entire telecom network for Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Phase II Project.

About

Auth

or

Pawan Chibba

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Governance model must be customized to the projects at hand to enable better control over progress and improve profit through better resource utilization.

Governance must be modeled on stakeholder theory and not shareholder theory. The financial objectives, based on which the model is selected, must have an extended time frame (5 /10 years)

Contracts must be drafted between various governing bodies to reduce conflict of interest as well as to check moral haz-ard.

Governance model must be created with orientation towards behavior and not outcome, if the ob-jective of organization is to build long term value, and also consider projects to be temporary or-ganizations from governance point of view.

Governance decisions must be measured using balanced score cards to promote objective and im-partial decisions.

Governance model must insulate Project Managers from the over-bearing influences and high pres-sures of the steering committee to succumb to unrealistic goals and to prevent myopic operations from spoiling long term organizational prospects.

The governance model should not entrust the steering committee or sponsor with a lot of decision making authority as it would create a skill bottleneck at the executing organization (project). It must therefore, promote alternative, middle order governance institutions like PMO to aid objective decision making.

Level of governance must be in sync with the type of contract awarded. For example, fixed price contracts need low levels of governance effort whereas Cost plus contracts require high level of governance effort.

Formal reporting between various elements of the gov-ernance system is recommended on a periodic basis to elimi-nate confusion and promote correct decision making.

Project Governance shall be supported by a Good Project Management Information Systems (PMIS). PMIS must have agreed upon Metrics in order to have informed decision making for verifying the performance.

Best Practices

Governance

Governance is a regulatory system that shapes the actions of the members under its purview, through various laws and contextual frameworks that define the relationships shared by them. Applied at corpo-rate level, it affects projects through its impact on the behavior of people. Its implementation is usu-ally defined through processes, roles and responsibilities, and reporting structures. It is a time tested process to reduce costly resource inefficiencies that affect corporate bottom-line.

By Shashank Neppalli

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Best practices will ensure that Principal-Agency conflicts are at a minimum, which will result in faster

decision making and greater value creation through elimination of resource wastage.

Effect of Implementation of Best practices

Self-Sustainability of Project Management Metrics PMO perspective

One of the greatest challenges for a PMO office is to ensure the sanctity of the data used to generate the metrics, which is viewed, reviewed and acted upon by the top management. In the era of knowledge based industry especially in the semiconductor domain , the role of the PMO office is not only limited to providing the methodology and infrastructure, but , also to ensure the sustainable deployment. By defi-nition the mandate to the PMO office in the present era is to be lean and agile.

So to satisfy both the mandates, PMO office needs to go for innovative techniques in terms of process, technology and techniques. Keeping these in mind we came up with some innovative technique to en-sure the self-sustainability of the PM Metrics. The guidelines used to define these are as follows:

Simple to understand, use & extract

No Jargons: Same language as of the user which leads to easy buy-in

By—Sarika Aggarwal , Nirmallya Kar & Sandeep Sethi

Shashank Neppalli is a Project Manage-ment Professional with demonstrated ability to plan and control, complex engineering projects. In addition to Planning & Monitoring, he possesses in-depth knowledge of Material Manage-ment, Contracts Administration, Risk Analysis (Project as well as Credit

Risk).

He is fond of swimming, trail running and scrambling.

About

Auth

ors

Shashank Neppalli

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The success and reliability of PM Metrics and tools

depends on how much the data is correct and up to

date. The output we get is a reflection of the input

we put inside. Garbage In , garbage out. The chal-

lenge becomes two fold in an organization which

has more and more technical background members

moving to the role of project managers. Sometimes

the Technical leaders are playing the dual role.

For the Success and reliability of PM Metrics and

tools, it is important to define indicators with the

following key guidelines

Enable assessment of product health

dynamically

Enable monitoring at any stage of the

product life cycle

Ensure completeness of the data

Reflect business justification in order to

implement and keep management moti-

vated to push team to meet the pa-

rameters

Provide sufficient information to enable

PM & Management to take corrective

actions

Provide evidence of how effective the

corrective action is once taken

The parameters must also relate to the existing qual-

ity compliance procedures.

Case below shows how we were able to define Key indicators /Database Reliability checks within sched-ule management tool and ensure correctness of the data ,Paralelly, keeping the management engaged to push teams to ensure the schedules are always up to date and reflect the correct health of the product. Today with a census of approximately 1000 , we have a rich portfolio of 4279 total number of product s (since 2011) present in the schedule management tool of which currently

427 are active products across 40 prod-uct lines in 39 technologies in Category 1 51 active products in category 2 in 29 technologies 69 active SOC in 22 technologies, 7 test chips in 2 technologies Category 3

99.2% clean data according to DRC

compliance report for the current week

Ground scenario- Challenge

Case Study

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Introduce Measurability by defining rules

Why : Draw an Analogy with existing work area of semiconductor domain of VLSI design flow.

In the semiconductor domain where the Rules (DRC= Design Rule Check) are applied to CAD design to en-sure the success in the manufacturing

Database Reliability Check (DRC) -> Mandatory

How

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4 Specify the indicators

Explain to the user community value add for each rule

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Normalized Error Density = Total DRC errors /

Total Number of Products Percent of compliant products Total DRC errors

0 Total Errors! 100 % of compliance products No of Errors/Number of Products in error = 0 (Density)

Introduce target indicators Target

Establish reporting systems (Agree on weekly /monthly/ reporting)

By Introducing measurability to the health of the data which produces PM metrics through simple guideline we are able to make the PM Metrics self-sustainable and now the sanctity of the data is not questioned as a consequence the PM Metrics are taken se-riously by the top management.

Take away

Sarika Aggarwal is MSc. in Elec-tronics and Communica-tion from DU. She is currently working as Pro-gram Manager , F T M / C C D S

STMicroelectronics, G.Noida.

She is responsible to Research, Define and Deploy Planning and Capacity Management Methodology for effec-tive Portfolio Management within the organization. She is a Prince2 Registered

Practitioner .

She has plus 3 Years of teaching experi-ence of University Undergraduates and 12 years plus of VLSI industry experience of which 5 years was focused on project management within design team and

last three years as a part of PMO .

About

Auth

ors

Sarika Aggarwal Nirmallya Kar Sandeep Sethi

Nirmallya Kar is an M.Tech from IITD. In his current responsibility as Section Manager, FTM/CCDS STMicro-e l e c t r o n i c s ,

G.Noida.

He is responsible for Quality, Program

Management and governance of Man-agement Data in the PMO Depart-

ment.

He is also a Lead Auditor for ISO/TS at the site and certified IPMA-D project manager. He has approx. 17 yrs. plus of VLSI industry experience and since last 9 years has been handling the Project Management activity in Department with a strong interaction

with site PMO office.

He is also a trainer for basic & ad-vanced Project Management, TQM courses

at the site.

Sandeep Sethi is a BE from DCE New Delhi. In his current re-sponsibility as Sr. Group Man-ager, FTM/CCDS S TM i c r oe l e c -t r o n i c s ,

G.Noida.

He is responsible for the Methodology and Reporting of the FTM/CCDS world-

wide, which includes Methodology, data governance and outsourcing activity in

the PMO Department.

He has approx. 20 yrs. plus of VLSI indus-try experience including managing team and IP developments and since last 6 years has been involved with the Pro-

gram Management activity in FTM/CCDS.

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Quantified Approach to Project Risk Assessment Models

By Amit Kaushik PMP®

Risk management is a systematic process of identifi-

cation, analysis and response to the project risks,

process comprising the risk identification, risk quan-

tification, risk response plan and risk response con-

trol sub processes. Though all the elements of risk

management cycle are essential but risk assessment

is the most critical one. For the success of any pro-

ject, it is inevitable to understand the stakes at risk

and the probability of occurrence of the event

which in turn depends upon a series of external as

well as internal factors of the entity (business /

process / project), for which the risk assessment is

being made. It is essential to know and control as

many of these factors as possible. Risk assessment is

a preventive action planned for the known risks

while unknown risks can be managed through a con-

tingency plan.

Risk assessment can be approached from two direc-

tions with two assessment models: The qualitative

model and the quantitative model.

Through qualitative model, the prioritization of

risks and their assessment is done on their probabil-

ity of occurrence and impact. The definite charac-

teristic of the qualitative model is the use of sub-

jective indexes, such as ordinal hierarchy: heat map

(low-medium-high), vital-critical-important, bench

mark etc.

On the other hand, through quantitative model, nu-

merical results are sought to express the probability

of each risk factor and its consequences on the ob-

jectives of the project. This can be done using tech-

niques such as Sensitivity Analysis, Expected Mone-

tary Value (EMV) or Monte Carlo simulation.

In certain scenarios where projects involve large

number of applications, each having their own set

of risk parameters or when the number of risk pa-

rameters in any particular application is very high,

it becomes more effective if the qualitative risks

are also evaluated quantitatively. This process of

quantifying qualitative risks not only bridges the gap

between qualitative and quantitative risk assess-

ment methods but also gives as an end result nu-

merical data and figures which are much easier to

evaluate and represent in various graphical formats.

This gives more efficient output that helps in better

business decision making and project risk manage-

ment.

In one of the projects involving migration of 300+

applications, the concept of quantification of quali-

tative risks was evolved and utilized. As an end re-

sult the prioritization of application migration was

based on the output derived from the framework.

Identifying qualitative risk attributes critical and common to all the applications such as criticality, complexity, stability, usage etc. Defining and elaborating these attributes ap-propriately for clearly highlighting the risks being measured. Specifying evaluation criterion for each attrib-ute and assigning a score for those criteria, keeping the score proportional to the impact

of the risk attribute.

Background

Risk Assessment Models

Qualitative Vs Quantitative Approach

Amalgamation of two assessment models

Quantifying the Qualitative risks

Practical application of Framework

Key Elements Used in the Approach

Always appreciate good and timely work. A word of appreciation work wonders.


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Subsequently, evaluating each application against these defined risk parameters and assigning a nu-merical rating for each resulting in a risk matrix of

application, risk and ratings as below.

Applications could be categorized across Busi-ness units based on the common risk attrib-utes. This gives an opportunity to evaluate risks in multi-dimensions Among various Business-units and for various applications within each Business unit. An as-sessment of the aggregate risk for a Business Unit can be done based upon the risks of indi-vidual applications combined together. Opportunity to represent it in the form of graphical charts such as pie chart depicting number of high/medium/low risk applications across a particular Business Unit. The bar graph below that represents the aver-age scores of the applications across the Busi-

ness Units giving an easy comparison chart.

Considering the multifold advantages of the framework, it can be easily extended /

adapted across multiple processes and knowledge areas of Project Management.

Project Procurement Management includes the

processes necessary to purchase or acquire products

or services.

The Plan Procurements process includes considera-

tion of risks involved with each make-or-buy deci-

sion. It also includes reviewing the type of contract

planned to be used with respect to mitigating risks,

sometimes transferring risks to the sellers or prod-

uct vendors. In this case, the decision of “Buy” was

taken keeping the standard requirements and ur-

gency of the delivery in mind.

Sample of attributes for risk evaluation

Project Management Advantages

Extension of the same framework in Procure-ment area for selecting the appropriate product

Risk

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During this process, potential products were identified and the same framework was used to define the selec-

tion criteria. A score assigned to each criterion was kept proportional to the impact of the risk attribute. This

selection criterion was further applied to choose the most appropriate product as per the requirements and

risks associated with the project in Conduct Procurements process.

Under Conduct Procure-

ments process, a de-

tailed evaluation was

conducted using the

weight age system and a

final rating was deter-

mined for all the prod-

ucts.

As an output, a consoli-

dated report with rela-

tive comparison of all the

risk attributes used dur-

ing evaluation of the po-

tential products was derived.

This framework provides a powerful mechanism to quantify the qualitative risks by elaborat-

ing and combining the similar risks and adopting the bottom-up approach to achieve the in-

tended output. Also, addition of weightage system in this process, adds another dimension

to distribute the risks variably, based on the weightage of the attributes. As data gets con-

verted into numbers, it can be better represented using various graphical methodologies.

Keeping the flexibility in mind, this framework can be further extended to various other domains in the Pro-

ject Management to take the well informed prudent decisions.

Take away

Amit Kaushik PMP®, ITIL V3 foundation certified pro-fessional, is currently associated with EXL Services Pvt. Ltd. as Senior Manager (Project Delivery) with 11+ years of industry experience in Enterprise and Business Solutions, Telecom, E-Learning and Embedded sys-

tems.

He has an experience in the areas of Program / Pro-ject Management, Application development, Enhance-ment and BaU production support across diverse tech-nology platforms. On educational front, he is B.Tech.

(Hons.) from REC / NIT, Kurukshetra and MBA in Project Management. About

Auth

or

Amit Kaushik

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Procurement is the focus area today

wherein transparency and fairness is

of paramount importance. Recent

2G fiasco and defence deals have

forced the Indian Government to for-

mulate a public procurement bill to

eliminate the menace of corruption

in high value public procurements. In

case of capital intensive projects,

especially in oil & gas, procurement

accounts for approximately 80% of

the project cost.

Traditionally, Project Managers in

India do not consider procurement as

an important integral part of the

Project and their role comes into

picture only after problems arise

during proposal and post award

stages.

In case of capital intensive projects, the project

completion time is normally based on the delivery

schedule of the long lead critical items which are

mostly high valued. So it becomes imperative for

the Project Manager to focus on the procurement

strategy for these long lead items rather than be

dependent only on the decisions made by procure-

ment cell.

Project Managers should appreciate procurement as

a cost and time saving strategy rather

than simply a knowledge area in the

project management. Project Manag-

ers equipped with commercial knowl-

edge will not only improve transpar-

ency and fairness but also enable him

to allocate cost and time saved during

the process for faster execution and to

minimize risks.

Sourcing for materials is the major

critical success factor for timely de-

livery of materials with best competi-

tive rates and quality. Vendor develop-

ment cell and Supplier relationship

management (SRM) should be the key

focus area for the success of procure-

ment strategies as well.

PROJECT SPECIFIC PROCUREMENT STRATEGIES FOR BETTER

PROJECT PERFORMANCE

By Abhinav PMP®

I propose to follow the transparent process in procurement, let's ask our kids to take out name of vendor on the occasion of family

day celebration. At the time of crises, contract can be cancelled with the simple

statement that we were just "KIDDING".

By - Piyush Govil PMP

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Abhinav is a certified Project Management

Professional (PMP®), currently associated with

Indian oil Corporations Ltd as Materials Man-ager (Projects). He has over 14 years of work-ing experience, mostly involved in Procure-ment activities of IOCL-Mega Projects. He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Bihar College of Engineering, Patna and done his Masters in Production Engineering from IIT, Delhi. He has also done a General management course from IIM, Indore. He has won the Gold Trophy in Hybrid Certificate Program on Project Management conducted by IOCL in association with U21Global, Singapore

Views articulated in an article by author are based on his

Project Procurement Experience. About

Auth

or

Abhinav

Parameters Traditional

Procurement System Project specific

Procurement system

Role of Project Manager Passive Active

Procurement team Low on confidence High on confidence, Empowered

Procurement Statement of work (SOW)

Specifications are not often clear Specifications are Clear and Concise

Contractual terms Full of Superfluous terms. Pre-Bid not mandatory for Critical items.

Project and Tender specific Pre- Bid is mandatory for Critical items.

Procurement procedure Lengthy, based on some irrelevant old Guidelines and circulars issued by Or-ganisations adding to lead time.

Project specific Simple and Easy to understand with relevant Guide-lines and circulars.

Vendor Development cell Not defined Plays an active role

Cost estimation Based on Historical data Based on Historical and market information

Delegation of Authority Not sub-delegated for Project Sub-delegated for Project

Evaluation Criteria in Tender

L1 (Lowest Bidder) concept often re-sults in overloading of bidder which will have cascading effect on the project schedule and cost.

Tender specify and rationalize the vendor list based on their shop floor loading, resource con-straint , financial capability, and asks Vendor to quote accordingly and will have the flexibility for multi-sourcing if required.

Supplier Relationship Man-agement (SRM)

Buyer is the Boss Consider supplier as Partner and ensure effective cash flow

Outsourcing Outsource both Technical and commer-cial evaluation

Outsource Only Technical evalua-tion if required and do in-house commercial evaluation.

Impact on Project Scope creep, Cost and Time overrun Provides Buffer for timely com-pletion of project

Risk Management Risk is high as suppliers not concerned about project objectives.

Risk is low as suppliers own the Project and there is always fall-back plan or defined risk mitiga-tion strategies.

Comparison between traditional procurement system and project specific procurement system will provide an

insight for better project performance management.

Request for quotation (RFQ)

based on project specific pro-

curement strategies definitely

will be a game changer in the

area of procurement and will

provide greater conviction and

courage to the Project Man-

ager for faster decision proc-

ess thereby having a success-

ful project execution.

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User Intimacy for IT Managers

By Anupama Awasthi

As an IT project manager, you might have often

heard that IT is far from the needs of business us-

ers. While on one hand IT teams deal with too much

pressure chasing deadlines and trying to cope with

delivery roadmaps, on the other hand this feeling

from users is not far from the truth. The core rea-

son is the relative pace at which the business world

with its ever changing requirements is moving.

Hence, just delivering what is asked for is clearly

not enough for IT. User intimacy is playing a key

role now and cannot be ignored.

Referring to these five steps can help bridge the gap

between IT and users.

Know your customer – Do you know who your

users are? How do they use your application?

What is their experience of your application?

It is extremely important to take proactive,

sustainable steps to meet regularly with them,

invest time to listen carefully to their feed-

back, setting up regular meetings in advance,

blocking calendars will help. This will also

make them feel that IT is ready to listen and

keen in understanding their difficulties in us-

ing the application.

Provide proactive suggestions to improve

their day-to-day life – This is about seeking

automation opportunities which can use in

their day-to-day activities. Users may not be

aware that few tasks which they do manually

can be automated saving their time and ef-

forts and hence simplifying their job.

Hand hold for writing RFC’s (Request for

Change) - It can be difficult for business users

to precisely articulate their request in terms

of what needs to be changed. If IT is present

at time of writing the RFC, it will be easier for

the expert to understand the requirement bet-

ter and develop a solution accordingly.

Deliver fast, exceedingly using agile mode –

This is need of the hour. While IT has to follow

proper cycle of first converting the user’s re-

quest into technical specifications, then de-

signing, developing, testing and achieving user

acceptance, and finally finding an appropriate

deployment window, it can be very challeng-

ing if application has global usage and there is

not a window of non-business hours long

enough for deployment. Also, users always de-

mand instant rectification, thus making the

use agile mode instead of standard waterfall

model ideal.

Celebrate the success together – Celebrating

together is really important. It gives an oppor-

tunity to IT teams to hear from users directly

how the enhancement has really helped them.

It is very motivating to see how their efforts

are directly impacting the internal or external

customers.

Do remember IT is

an enabler of business

success in today's

world and only a com-

bined effort of IT and

business makes all the

difference!

Anupama, is a senior management professional having extensive experience in offshore outsourcing delivery model. Guiding and coaching delivery managers to man-age complex projects having stakeholders spread across

the global and working with different cultures.

Her specialties include Client relationship management, Program management, Risk management, People man-

agement and IT outsourcing,

About

Auth

or

Anupama Awasthi

28

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Introducing Interview Series

Synerg

y - C

orresp

ondent

Synerg

y - G

uest

Watch this Space

Next Edition

Mr. Abhijit Bharat Kumar

Synergy - Correspondent

Coming

soon… to

your desk!

29

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Managing Agile Vs Traditional – what’s different?

By Jitender Gosain PMP®

Most of the projects nowadays are following agile or waterfall methodologies. So what is the difference in

managing projects using these two streams? Let us find out.

Agile methodologies are based on the four core agile values (4C’s) which are stated as below:

Customer collaboration or cooperation Change acceptance Commitment to the delivery based on the business value Communicating successfully or effectively

The traditional or the waterfall proc-ess is a sequential or a step by step process which goes through distinct phases. These phases are ordered as follows.

Requirements analysis Software design Build or construction Test or validation Release Maintenance or support

Overview

Project requirement management

Agile Traditional

Requirements in agile are always refining. They are considered as DEEP (Detailed, Estimated, Emergent and Prioritized).

Requirements are analyzed and well understood for the complete project before starting or implementing it. A customer first approves the requirements.

A customer determines and advocates high prior-ity and ready requirements to be taken up in it-eration.

Team determines which requirement to build first as per the design.

Requirement changes can be suggested by the customer even during the iteration. A customer has the authority and flexibility to suggest high priority and high value changes to team.

Requirement changes in the traditional methodology are managed separately as part of the change man-agement process.

https://c2blogs.cognizant.com/blogs/pmcanvas/2012/09/18/managing-agile-vs-traditional-whats-different-4/

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Agile processes are based on effective customer collaboration. In agile, customer is part of the develop-

ment process and is aware of the team progress and impediments. The main reason why a customer opts

for agile is that there is a greater visibility or transparency in the project work of agile as compared to

the traditional development approaches.

Planning in agile is never finalized. Since change is accepted as a core of the process, plan keeps chang-

ing. The emphasis is always on the current iteration plan. The project plan is fully formalized and ap-

proved in the traditional process.

Agile demands and suggests for having self-managed teams. An agile project manager (PM) assists the team in meeting the iteration commitment. The team has more authority and flexibility in agile projects as compared to the traditional-process-based project.

Project planning

Team management

Customer management

Agile Traditional

Agile processes are based on the active customer participation and collaboration.

A customer follows the agreed contract for the pro-ject. Implementation is guided as per the approved project plan.

A customer interacts directly with the team and is an integral part of the implementation proc-ess.

A customer expects that the deliverable for the pro-ject is achieved as per the plan.

A customer is aware of the team progress. There is a greater visibility or transparency in the pro-ject work, and hence, there is an increase in pro-ductivity and performance.

The progress is primarily judged as per key milestone tracking. A customer may not be aware of team issues or im-pediments.

Agile Traditional

Planning in agile is continuous as there is will-ingness to accept changes. Agile planning follows the DIP (Daily planning – Individuals in team, It-eration planning and Project release planning) approach.

A detailed project plan is laid out in the beginning it-self and approved from the customer. Traditional projects are easy to manage as a complete project plan is agreed upon initially itself.

The current iteration plan is agreed or approved at the start of the iteration. A customer always has the authority to suggest changes to the high business value items.

The approved project plan is followed in each phase. Key deliverable date is agreed and published to the customer.

Always remember you cannot achieve anything without your team. You are what your team is.


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In traditional projects, risks are identified during planning stages and are managed throughout the project

execution. Risk management in agile is challenging because of the short iterative cycle.

Risk management

Agile Traditional

Agile teams are (supposed to be) self-managed, empowered, and cross-functional.

A PM guides the team as per the agreed project plan.

Project tasks are picked by the individuals in the team. Estimates are provided by the team and the team is aware of the iteration commitment. Each member has committed ownership. Team members need to have good experience.

Tasks are assigned as per the project plan. Ownership may vary depending on the role of a member within the team. The team follows the approved project plan. Team members can get trained on required skills for the pro-ject.

Changes in the team structure are restricted. Team changes can happen as per the progress of the project.

Team productivity is highly demanding because of the short iterative nature and commitment.

Team has time to build the capabilities.

Teams always have a chance to inspect and adapt their performance and suggest changes.

Project learning's are captured only at the end of the project.

Team motivation, coaching, removal of impedi-ments, and assessing team health are central to the agile PM.

Traditional PM has to lead from the front to success-fully guide the team in all aspects.

Agile Traditional

Risks are identified as per the iteration. Risks are identified during project planning.

Risks are considerably reduced as per iterative de-

liveries. Risks are high until release is done.

Risks can be better managed by having an effec-

tive DoD (Definition of Done) which demands

from the team what is expected. Risk communication is part of standup meeting.

Identified risks are managed till the project release.

Never blame the team ...the mistakes and faults should be owned by the PM.

Protect your team today and you will be protected forever. .


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Agile processes suggest the effective usage of the best engineering practices. These practices help in de-veloping a quality product.

Traditional projects are tracked as per their deviations from the approval baseline project plan. Agile projects

are monitored based on current iteration goals and overall project status.

Both agile and traditional methodologies have their own strength and weaknesses. Suit-ability criteria or exercise should be used prior to the deciding process for the project execution. What I have learnt is agile is a remedy for complex, urgent, and distinct projects.

Project tracking

Best Engineering Practices

Agile Traditional

Most of the agile processes advocate the effective usage of the best engineering practices as agile de-velopment demands high performance and sound quality. Some of these practices are automated tests, waste removal, refactoring, and simplicity.

Traditional software development is guided as per the agreed plan and project triple constraints. The best engineering practices can be followed de-pending upon the project constraints (primarily cost).

Agile processes are value driven. Anything which is not adding the value to the end delivery is consid-ered as a waste.

Wastes can be controlled only through effective planning (investment in quality).

Agile Traditional

For current iteration, daily burn down report is used to track its progress. For the overall project, a release burn down report is used.

Deviation from the baseline is primarily used to track the progress of the project.

Take away

Jitender Gosain is currently working as "Manager-Projects" with Cognizant. He completed his MCA from Gurukul Kangri University Haridwar. He is having 12+ years of Software industry experience including 5 years in US. He has been involved in soft-ware projects for clients like Bank of America, Veri-zon, American Electric Power, Harcourt and American Express. His expertise includes Agile based project management. He is PMP, CSP, CSM and ITIL V3 foundation certified.

About

Auth

or

Jitender Gosain

33

Save your Earth!

Regulatory and Compliance

Their impact on business operations and their value proposition

By Rakesh Prasad PMP®

Telecom industry has grown rapidly in the last dec-

ade with subscriber base touching almost 900+ Mn in

India. This trend demands an increase in the num-

ber digits from existing 10 to 12 to meet exponen-

tial growth, and many changes such as TRAI’s

(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) advisory on

the new activation process, which means stringent

verification process in place before a subscriber

number can be activated. This not only brings

enough prudence on part of services providers while

enrolling customers, but also minimizes the misuse

of numbers being

allotted to custom-

ers without any

documentation in

place. However,

this brings new

challenges to the

Telecom industry

incumbents (or Tel-

cos) and new en-

trants on the ever

decreasing reve-

nue. Much of these

can be attributed

to strict regulations

and huge invest-

ment on 3G auc-

tion.

Global telecom providers have to deal with laws

that directly impact their businesses, both at home

and abroad. Beyond that, they also have to deal

with regulatory issues that impact their customers.

They have to support those customers' requirements

with respect to security, auditing and archiving.

With the new Telecom policy that may be issued

with the need to introduce number portability

across PAN-India, subscribers will soon find easier to

retain the service number irrespective of the loca-

tion s/he moves to.

For most Telecom service providers, regulatory

compliance remains a key concern. With the advent

of new technologies and in their bid to adequately

deal with ever-changing regulatory landscape, Tele-

com providers in India are turning to building solu-

tions in IT.

Regulatory compliance drives Telcos to align busi-

ness processes by building system controls, imple-

menting security, increasing op-

erational efficiencies, improving

transparency and creating an ef-

fective customer service plat-

form. It forces companies to re-

think their business strategy and

build effective management

practices required for survival.

Many of these regulations have

an impact on the business proc-

esses practiced in the entire or-

ganization at all levels – from Ex-

ecutive down to Mid-level man-

agement.

While Telcos continue to think of

providing connections and con-

tent as a service, there is a need

of emerging technology that inte-

grates Machine to Machine (M2M), Near Field Com-

munication (NFC) and Mobile Commerce service

platforms. The presence of these services promise

increased efficiency and high customer-centricity.

However, the Telcos’ move into these emerging seg-

ments raise various challenges such as exposing

regulatory and compliance risks, high infrastructure

costs and lower Average Revenue per User (ARPU).

The challenges are compounded by rising concerns

among customers whose privacy in terms of per-

sonal data is breached. A study shows threats to

customers arising from a range of environments.

Impact

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Save your Earth!

An Ernst & Young study finds that four out of five

end users believe safeguarding their personal infor-

mation is very important and that customers are

concerned about areas such as targeted advertising,

location-based services and third-party information

sharing.

While most of the projects driven by TRAI ensure

that Indian Telcos invest in IT and Network solu-

tions, it also requires identification and a qualita-

tive approach to perform risk analysis at the earliest

phase of such projects. These projects have con-

straints in terms of completion date as laid down by

the guidelines mandated by TRAI on behalf of the

government. Regulatory compliance projects im-

pacts the schedule of other projects planned ear-

lier. Such transformation projects shifts down, set

priorities of other projects as agreed with stake-

holders within the organization.

National security issues are on the upward trend.

The picture is further complicated by nature and

scale of security concerns varying from one cus-

tomer segment to another segment – Government,

Enterprise and Individuals.

Telcos in conjunction with TRAI need to play a vital

role in defining the framework that is secured and

less susceptible to fraudulence and terrorism. As a

result Telcos need to work closely with government

in defining their responsibilities clearly regarding

content, data and anti-terrorism measures.

Following are some of

the areas where organi-

zations need to focus

and implement regula-

tory compliant strate-

gies :

Build technical

knowledge and skills

required to identify

challenges and address

it efficiently and quickly

Anticipate regula-

tory changes in advance

Achieve cost-effective balance between com-

pliance and risk

Engage an independent body which assists in

implementing best practices followed in the

industry worldwide

Help create effective operations management

strategy and reduce compliance risks

Ensure adequate controls in place to protect

customer’s information

Ensure adequate security measures to restrict

the access and transmission of inappropriate

content/ product through suppliers

Conduct preliminary and post-implementation

reviews of controls that have been identified

and defined in the framework

User perception of responsibility for Mobile security

Value Proposition

References:

http://www.datanetworksolutions.com/

netappcompliance2.pdf

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/

Top_10_risks_in_telecommunications_2012

Rakesh Prasad is a PMP®(Project Man-agement Profes-sional) with 17 yrs experience and has managed many OSS/BSS projects as part of Transformation in Telco Domain. He has been associated with Aircel for last 4 yrs handling IT projects in Telecom. He possesses in-depth knowledge of Risk Man-

agement.

Interests: Travelling, Reading, sports and

watching classic Movies

About

Auth

or

Rakesh Prasad

35

Save your Earth!

Data analysis and reporting system for

Excel spreadsheet users

By - Apoorv Chaturvedi & Abhinav Chaturvedi

Working capital manage-

ment is an extremely

critical component for

various construction pro-

jects. Delay in cash col-

lections or reduced collections could result in a pro-

ject running into losses or delay in the execution of

the same. We are looking at helping builders ad-

dress this problem on a turnkey basis using real time

analytics.

How is this aspect different from the Project man-

agement solution implementation?

Collection from the clients for a builder could

be independent of the start and the end dates

for an activity. For example a builder might

decide that a particular activity be done only

when the cash has been completely collected

for the activity or the builder might decide to

go ahead with the activities irrespective of

the collections.

The collection dates for various activities

within a project could vary depending upon

the progress of the same. The Project Manag-

ers need to have a system to be able to work

with adjusting the collection dates.

The resources on the field are technically not

IT savvy. They would require a system that is

very easy to understand and use. Most of

these resources are very friendly with Micro-

soft Excel. A system that is as close to MS Ex-

cel as possible needs to be designed. Even the

data elements into the customized solution

should be same as MS Excel spreadsheets data

elements.

The senior managers need to have real time

visibility into the progress of the activities.

The following are the benefits of the solution (if

successfully implemented):

Real time visibility into milestone delivery for

construction projects.

Real time visibility into the accounts receiv-

able situation.

Real time visibility into the accounts payable

situation.

An error proof system of milestone tracking

system.

More time for the customer service depart-

ment to collect the dues.

More time for the Project Managers to adjust

their schedule and resources based on the col-

lections.

More time and scope for the Project Manager

to work with vendors and contractors in case

they have completed their deliverables before

time.

Better cash management for the builder. This

should lead to quicker project implementa-

tion.

A number of builders are involved in a large number

of construction projects. Such builders face the fol-

lowing common problems:

Delay in capturing and analyzing the data such

as milestone data, vendor quotations data and

so forth. Such data is normally captured in MS

Excel spreadsheets in difficult and compli-

cated formats. The difficulty and complication

could be due to multiple entries of the same

data elements in the spreadsheets in different

formats.

Cost Effective and Complete

Construction and the real estate domain

Case Study

Problem

Benefits of the solution

Description of the problem

36

Save your Earth!

Difficulty at implementing standard ERP and

Project Management softwares such as SAP,

MS Project and Primavera. This is due to the

fact that the field sales people might not be

comfortable using those interfaces. Also the

operations of the client may need to be

changed depending upon the ERP system been

used.

High licensing costs of the software specially

the costs of Data entry licenses.

Our approach is to design custom applications that

service the following needs of the builders:

Front end personnel do not have to change the

data input format and methods of working sig-

nificantly. People who work on MS Excel can

work very easily.

Many a times, clients are quite comfortable

with their business processes. They don’t want

to change them for the sake of ERP system. In

our approach, the client can continue with the

existing business logic. But if he does desire

to change the business logic in the system at

any time now or in future, it is very easy to

adapt in the system.

The Manager can make any report or analysis

which he wants to look at, without any expert

help. The system will have ad hoc reporting

features that is built into the system. In a nor-

mal ERP such a feature is to be purchased

separately.

The solution is very cost effective vis-à-vis

standard ERPs:

No software licensing costs

Maintenance is easy

Support at reasonable costs.

Implementation cycle times are very short.

The following are some of the problems faced by

the builders in capturing the information necessary

for them to take appropriate decisions.

The technical competencies of the resources

on the field are low: many of the resources

on the field do not have high IT skill sets. Un-

derstanding the systematic processes involved

in MS Project, Primavera implementation is

difficult for these resources.

High turnover of the resources on the field.

Many of these resources frequently change

their jobs. Hence training such resources on

complicated software is an expensive proposi-

tion.

Different methodologies of Project Managers:

in a large firm, different project managers

could have different set of methodologies that

entail capturing different sets of information.

High Data entry licensing costs of various stan-

dard software's

Hence the capture of data from the field frequently

takes place using Ms Excel spreadsheets, telephonic

conversation, notepads etc.

How does the capture in MS Excel spreadsheets

impede the functioning of the Construction firms?

Manual data entry: this results in lost hours

and high chances of error.

Inflexible spreadsheet formats

Limited scope for collaboration among multi-

ple users.

Lack of ability to audit the data within the

spreadsheets.

Lot of time is spent entering data within

spreadsheets

What is the problem

37

Save your Earth!

What is the critical factor in successfully imple-

menting any Project Management system?

Ease of usage for the end user: since the end

user is currently using MS Excel spreadsheets,

hence the solution that is made should be as

close to the MS Excel spreadsheets as possible.

If the person filling the project details finds

the format very different from the one he is

currently using then the implementation of

the project systems could become difficult.

Also the data in the developed system should

be the same as in MS Excel spreadsheets so

that the user could identify with the same

very easily.

Ease of access for the end user: the end

user, who has to fill the data sets, should eas-

ily be able to access the online forms. If the

online forms could be accessed using the mo-

bile devices it shall be the best possible alter-

native.

Easy availability of analytics for senior man-

agers: the managers should get access to ana-

lytics in an easy to use manner.

Interface with the ERP systems: A large num-

ber of firms have invested significant sums in

ERP implementation. With the data that has

been gathered from the field, it is important

to interface with the given ERP system so that

the transactional flow is seamless and very

quick.

What are the implementation bottlenecks at the

end client?

High costs of implementation: these high costs

include the costs of training, implementation

and maintenance costs.

Low priority of Project systems implementa-

tions by the senior managers: for many firms

the modules of Finance, HR, Sales and CRM

are a higher priority. The budgets for the im-

plementation of the same would have been

marked for the year accordingly. The imple-

mentation of Project systems could come as a

low priority.

High costs of end user licenses: if the project

management systems are implemented on a

large scale using the standard software such

as Primavera and MS project, the costs of li-

censes would be very high. This could also add

as an impediment to the implementation

costs.

The ROI (Return on Investment) of the Project

systems implementation is not clearly defined:

this does act as a dampener to the implemen-

tation of interactive Project systems on a

large scale.

Suggested course of action: the builder could adopt

the following course of action to help solve the

problem of getting project analytics. We suggest a 5

step process to help solve the above problem.

Soft skill polishes person's outlook towards others.


38

Save your Earth!

Design an entry form as close to the MS Ex-

cel spreadsheets format as possible: this task

shall entail designing data models from the

existing MS Excel spreadsheets. The data mod-

els and the data entry forms need to be so de-

signed so as to reduce the effort for data en-

try. The end user should find it easier to enter

the data into the data entry form rather than

use the current MS Excel spreadsheets. In this

regards the following aspects need to be taken

into consideration:

The historical entry of the data into the

database should be in the same format

as in the current MS Excel spreadsheets.

Thus even the database entries should

be the same as in the current project

spreadsheets. The end user should not

find any difference in data entries on

current Ms Excel spreadsheets and the

new system.

A systematic method needs to be devel-

oped for updating the target milestones

if the need arises for the builder.

Design a reporting solution from the inter-

mediate database: the data from the spread-

sheets should be entered into a user friendly

database. The senior managers who need im-

mediate online access to the analytics from

the intermediate database that has been de-

veloped. This should help in getting the man-

agers quick reports at highly affordable costs.

Also the managers shall be able to understand

the business terminologies from the field per-

sonnel very quickly.

Interface with the existing ERP systems: a

bidirectional interface with the existing ERP

systems should be developed. This should be

done so that the builder gets complete benefit

from the developed system.

Design of KPIs(Key Performance Indicators)

for senior managers: A systematic process

should be developed for developing the KPIs

for the senior managers. This should be done

so that the managers get full benefits of the

system that has been developed.

Mr. Apoorv Chaturvedi brings

with himself extensive Data

warehouse and report devel-

opment experience. He has

the ability to map various dis-

parate data sources including MS Excel spread-

sheets onto relational databases.

He can also help design best in class reporting

solutions for the end clients.

Mr. Abhinav Chaturvedi has

worked with top software

firms such as Atrenta, Ca-

dence in the field of VLSI de-

sign.

He brings with himself exten-

sive development experience of C, C#. He did

his Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of

Engineering and MBA from University of Califor-

nia, Los Angeles.

Apoorv Chaturvedi

About

Auth

ors

Abhinav Chaturvedi

39

Save your Earth!

Fusion of Agile-Scrum to BDD Transforming agile to more agile

By Rajnish Kumar Chauhan

Agile methodologies are getting a lot of attention

nowadays and organizations are keen to adopt the

agile for software development.

Scrum is one of the most famous processes for agile

software development.

It is assumed that readers have sufficient knowledge

on Scrum agile process and terminology.

In Scrum, all requirements are listed in Product

Backlog in a sprint planning meeting, on top the

high priority and at the bottom the ones with lower

priority are listed.

Team members figure out how many items they can

commit to and then create a sprint backlog, which

is a list of the tasks to perform during the sprint.

While an agile approach can be used for managing

any project, Scrum is ideally suited for projects

with rapidly changing or highly emergent require-

ments such as we find in software development.

When requirements are changing fast, there is risk

of misinterpretation of requirements and their func-

tional behavior and also behavior of new require-

ments.

If there are complex business rules and complex

business scenarios, then risk of fulfillment of re-

quirement goes up with each such business case,

adding more risk of acceptance of final product.

This could cause rework and delay in final product

shipment and a long product backlog.

In Scrum, after defining the Sprint backlog the de-

velopment activity, which is called Sprint, starts.

One sprint usually spans from 24 hours to 30 days.

In such a scenario it becomes very important to

have clear understanding of requirements since de-

velopment duration is less and there is very little

scope to recover from any rework due to misunder-

standing of requirements.

How one can mitigate this risk

and can fill the gap between

team & product owner to

have clear understanding of

requirement/functional be-

havior to develop product as

needed?

Behavior-Driven Development

(BDD) is perfect answer to

this question .

But wait …

What is this and how it can help? Let this article

explains you..

BDD focuses on obtaining a clear understanding of

desired software behavior through discussions with

stakeholders. Behavior-driven developers use their

native language in combination with the ubiquitous

language of domain-driven design to describe the

purpose and benefit of their code. This allows the

Article is about how can BDD (Behavior

Driven Development) be used in SCRUM

framework to make agile process more

agile and effective

What is the risk?

SPRINT PLANNING

Story1

Story2

Story3

Story4

Story5

Story1

Story2

Product Backlog Sprint Backlog

High Priority

Low Priority

How to mitigate this risk?

40

Save your Earth!

developers to focus on why the code should be created, rather than the technical details, and minimizes

translation between the technical language in which the code is written and the domain language spoken

by the stakeholders e.g. business, users, stakeholders, project managers etc.

Found this definition kind of language difficult .Let’s go into more details and try to understand it to-

gether.

Consider the online-store application. User wants refund in return of defective product. Requirement from

client is to return money to the user on refunding some article say phone.

Ok, this is fine but what is needed to implement in software and how client will accept it?

This is a very obvious question from development team. This kind of confusion happens because user & de-

veloper talk in different languages. Developer talks in technical way and user in their own language for a

requirement thereby causing gap in understanding.

How can it BDD be created so that client and development team are having same understanding.

In BDD language the requirement can be described as:

BDD provides a platform to transform requirement into functional behavior .This results in better under-

standing of functional behavior of application to both client and development team.

Development team knows what to implement and client knows what to do in acceptance testing.

This was a summary introduction of BDD.

And now the million $ question, where to put BDD in a scrum process ?

This is a very important point to utilized the full power of BDD.

This is my new

requirement

Ok got it

IF ( x > 89)then sysout(“…..”);

WHEN user has bought a phone AND phone cost $100 WHEN we refund the phone THEN user should be refunded $100

Where to plug-in BDD in Scrum process and where it can used during development ?

41

Save your Earth!

stakeholders were involved when defining require-

ment, BDD documents become the

valid document to discuss final prod-

uct behavior in user acceptance.

This provides a better visibility of

what was required, why was needed

& who has requested.

How this fusion will benefit ….

Avoids misinterpretation of

user stories

Transform requirement into

functional behavior of the software

Provide a common platform and

vocabulary to understand requirement in a

be t t e r

way

Development team is aware of User Accep-

tance behavior in advance for all user stories

As requirements ( user stories )are inter-

dependent ,therefore helps in avoiding any

confusion among development team

Spring meetings & daily scrum meetings are

more effective

The figure above shows all points where BDD can be

plug-in to Scrum methodology.

Let’s discuss how BDD will be useful on all points…

BDD will provide common ground & language to

transform requirement into functional behavior in

product backlog and to change functional behavior

into technical specification for implementation.

Many times functional behaviors are related to each

other and in software development, team members

work parallel on functional behavior linked to each

other.

In daily scrum meeting, BDD will provide common

platform to understand each of development activ-

ity and will avoid any confusion and knowledge gap

to produce final product among development team.

At Sprint meeting; Product owner , Development

team & stakeholder come together and see a demo

on what the team has produced.

As BDD is in place from Sprint planning and all

At Product Backlog & Spring Backlog

Daily Scrum Meeting

Sprint Meeting

Benefits

Rajnish is currently associated with ST Microelectronics as Application Group

Manager.

He has total industry experience of 8 years in complex custom applications develop-

ment for ST internal use for semiconduc-tor manufacturing unit and quality process

automation .

He shares his experience by writing regu-lar blogs on Project management on the learning's from day to day job and reading

different books.

About

Auth

or

Rajnish Kumar Chauhan

Story1

Story2

Story3

Story4

Story5

Story1

Story2

Sprint Backlog

Sprints

Shippable

product

Daily Scrum meeting

Stakeholders BDD

Sprint Re-Sprint

Sprint

Final Functional Behaviour

Development

42

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New Volunteer Program Launch

To further promote PMI’s best project management practices amongst various stakeholders, provide ad-ditional volunteering opportunities for our chapter members, chapter board has launched Company

Connect program on November 5, 2012 with following objectives:

Chapter Outreach: Reach out to Government, Private and other type of organizations for advocacy

of best Project Management practices

Education: Educate members and potential members about PMI and the North India Chapter

Membership: Encourage PMI North India Chapter membership in the organization

Marketing: Develop & Share Chapter activities within the organization showcasing the benefits availed by being members of North India Chapter

To meet these objectives, chapter is now initiating the process of accepting nominations for Company Connect program to appoint Company Connect Ambassadors (CCA). This program will be rolled out across various organizations, where NIC-CCAs (North India Chapter - Company Connect Ambassadors) will act as liasion between their respective organization and the Chapter Board. We may be appointing more than one NIC-CCA’s for an organization depending on its size and geographical presence. For any queries, please write to [email protected]

Company Connect:

To further promote PMI’s best project management practices amongst various stakeholders, provide ad-ditional volunteering opportunities for our chapter members, and in-line with our commitment in last AGM; chapter board is pleased to announce launch of another unique program called Region Connect. This program will be connecting North India Chapter with the Project Management Professionals in the areas primarily outside Delhi – NCR region. The list of states in North India Chapter Geography is pro-vided on the chapter website, (cities are shown for reference, please apply as per states mentioned in

the list). Following are the objectives of this program:

Chapter Outreach: Reach out to Government, Private and other type of organizations in the respec-

tive local geography for advocacy of best Project Management practices

Education: Educate members and potential members about PMI and the North India Chapter

Membership: Encourage PMI North India Chapter membership in the respective geography

Marketing: Develop & Share Chapter activities in the region showcasing the benefits availed by being members of North India Chapter, and getting connected with PMI

To meet these objectives, chapter is now initiating the process of accepting nominations for Regional Connect Ambassador (RCA) position. This program will be rolled out across North India Chapter Geogra-phy, where NIC-RCAs (North India Chapter - Regional Connect Ambassadors) will act as a liasion between the respective region and Chapter Board. We may be appointing more than one NIC-RCAs within each region for depending on its size, and scope / requirement of advocacy. For any queries, please write to [email protected]

Region Connect:

PMI North India Chapter has been working with various Government, Private and PSU organizations over

last few years with all of our events being sponsored by them during this period.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

43

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Past Events

On 14th October, chapter conducted its Annual General Meeting one of the most important gather-ing for chapter members. Chapter Board with all portfolios presented the achievement during the period of January 2010 till October 2012. Preparations for the AGM has been started a month back with Chapter by Laws approval from chapter members. To amend the chapter By Laws online voting was conducted with a time period of one month before the Annual General Meeting. As per the amendment approval requirement minimum 10% members required to vote and out of that 2/3 of voting members required to approve the changes. Chapter Bylaws where approved by more than double votes as per the minimum requirement. Chapter board thanks its members for over whelmed response on the amendments.

PMI North India Chapter AGM – 14th October’2012

Panel discussion in full swing IBM Team

Registration Desk

Event was inaugurated by Mr. Ajay Malik (Project Services Leaders, Delhi IBM)). Ms Arti Chadha - Project Manager IBM presented the case study on Managing Troubled Projects. Panel Discussion on Managing Troubled Projects was powered by panelist Mr. Ajay Malik (Project Services Leader, Delhi IBM), Mr. Ravi Ruhela (Manager, Project Services, Delhi – IBM), Ms. Shalini Lamba – Independent Project Consultant, Mr Vijay K. Verma (Manager, Project Services, Delhi IBM) moderated the panel discussion. Approximately 100 plus at-tendees comprising of chapter members and IBM em-ployees enjoyed the session. Special thanks to Mr. Ajay Malik and Mr. Vijay K. Verma from Team IBM assisted chapter in arranging venue with all security clearances and High Tea sponsorship. Mr. Amit Agarwal Vice Presi-dent – Program was the chapter SPOC for this event. Two Chapter volunteers Mr. Naveen Singh and Ms. Shalini Lamba managed the registration desk.

An evening with IBM – “Managing Troubled Projects ”14th October;2012, Noida

44

Save your Earth!

Past Events

The Alcatel-Lucent Project Management Community observed the International Project Management (IPM) Day on 1 November. This was the sixth edition of the annual event. This year Mr. Jayant Malhotra - VP Schlumberger, our chapter member was one of the guest speaker for the virtual event for the Asia-Pacific region, which was attended by over 185 employees from 15 countries including China, Japan, Australia, Singapore, and India through a live webcast and meeting. The same event was delivered last year also by PMI North India Chapter with our Chapter President – Manoj K Gupta presenting on behalf of North India Chapter .

We also delivered the above program using members and external faculties for Amity University on behalf of PMI India in Noida earlier this month. Amity Aca-demic Staff College, in association with Amity Insti-tute of Information Technology and PMI India, organ-ized a five-day refresher course for project manag-ers. A total of 29 participants from Amity University attended the training. A three-member team with our chapter president delivered the entire training that acquainted the participants with PMI concepts such as project management framework, product lifecycle, and organization structure, project man-

agement process for a project and mapping of these process areas with project knowledge areas, and project scope, time, and cost management. The par-ticipants gained insights on developing analytical frameworks, communication techniques, and strate-gic planning skills, and increase their managerial in-sights that will ensure projects are completed on time, on budget, and within scope besides getting hands-on exposure on tools like MS Project. Initial presentations were done by Vivek Shaily (PMI India) and Manoj K Gupta (PMI North India Chapter), followed by sessions from Ananya Das, Vineet Sar-dana and Pratyush Akhauri .

Earlier last week we have also delivered a program on Risk Management for 34 PSU officials in Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation from 25 different PSU’s. Program also gave them exposure about PMI North India chapter, activities being done by chapter and areas of collaboration between PSU’s and NI

Chapter. Session was delivered jointly by our Chapter President and Hemant Siegell, chapter member of NI Chap-ter and the program was very well received and appreciated by participants. These participants repre-sented organizations like AAI, HLL, NTPC, IOC and others.

Alcatel-Lucent IPM Day through their Chennai Office

Program on Project Management – Risk Management for 25 PSU’s through MOSPI

Besides that NI Chapter has also been involved in following activities for advocacy of Project Management best practices in the region and beyond:

Faculty Development Program for Amity University On Project Management

45

Save your Earth!

Team Editorial

Avail PMI Economic Exception Scheme;

renew your member-ship now at reduced

rate.

Hurry!

Hemant Seigell

Abhijit B. Kumar

Prashant Malhotra

Nitin N Singh

Nirmallya Kar

Pooja Gandhi

Kumar Saurabh

Manoj Gupta

Piyush Govil

Editorial Team welcomes Articles, Case Studies, White Papers, etc. for their

ongoing endeavor.

We always welcome suggestions or ideas for improvement. Kindly submit at

[email protected]

Disclaimer:

“The views and opinions expressed in all articles are those of

the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion

of PMI - North India Chapter and Editorial Team"


http://www.pminorthindia.org

[email protected]

[email protected]

http://www.pminorthindia.org

[email protected]

synergy

Documents

chapter election guidelines

pmi north india chapter

north india chapter

end of year

year end

exciting year

past year

prosperous new year